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Tom D. Wu

Tom D. Wu is a doctoral student of sociology at the Graduate Center of City University of New York (CUNY). His academic interests include immigration/citizenship, state theory and political subjectivities. Tom currently teaches at Queens College's sociology department and also serves as an oral historian for the Tenement Museum.

Recent Articles

I t’s 11 a.m. on a brisk Friday morning. In the middle of a short block of 40 th Road, just off Main Street in Queens, where colorful signs stand out against the densely packed four-story buildings, a handful of Chinese delivery workers dismount from their motorbikes. The dry pavement here is a welcome sight; much of the downtown area was buried under a foot of snow earlier in the week. The men, dressed in sneakers, blue jeans and puffy jackets, gather in a circle at one of the few empty parking spots. At the center of this congregation is Peter, a 25-year-old food delivery worker from Tianjin, China. Just ten minutes ago, Peter was pulled over by a traffic cop and fined $90 for not flipping down the eye shield on his motorcycle helmet. Peter vents to his impromptu support group in Mandarin: “I had it down, he was just out to get me. Nothing I could’ve done.” One of the workers asks Peter, “Is he bald and slow?” Without directly answering the question, Peter points to the southwest...